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Incandescent light bulbs are officially banned in the U.S. (www.digitaljournal.com)
submitted 3 years ago by [M, B] to c/technology@lemmy.world
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Incandescent light bulbs are officially banned in the U.S.::America’s ban on incandescent light bulbs, 16 years in the making, is finally a reality. Well, mostly.

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[–] 17 points 3 years ago* (1 child)

Some of these bulbs might be difficult to find in LED and there might be other considerations like shape, heat, dimmer compatibility, etc.. Replacing fixtures could represent a significant burden in these cases and thought there are many exceptions listed they likely represent a small percentage of overall usage.

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  • [–] 1 point 3 years ago (2 children)

    I've seen dimmer compatible LEDs and, even better, LED bulbs that have built in control of light intensity and even color. I've even seen bulbs capable of playing music through bluetooth!

    Shape I don't really see as a concern, as any shape an incandescent bulb can be produced in, a LED bulb can also be. And then some, as the LEDs can be set up, twisted and bent into some very imaginative shapes and angles.

    And heat is not ready a concern. You can touch most LED bulbs with your bare hands with no risk of severe burn. Unless very high wattage is in play, at most, a LED bulb will be warm to the touch.

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  • [–] 7 points 3 years ago* (last edited 3 years ago) (1 child)

    Try not to dismiss everything so quickly. I came up with those in 5 minutes but a committee of experts could find many more. When the exceptions were written they had a reason. A few examples:

    • In a traffic fixture, the heat that the incandescent bulb generates often serves to melt ice, and early traffic fixtures with LEDs did have icing problems. Replacing the fixtures would represent a significant burden.

    • An LED wouldn't survive in an oven and oven lights aren't on for very long either so what would it matter?

    • A bulb in a refrigerator could be exposed to condensation.

    • Dimmer compatible LEDs require pulse width modulated dimmers. Incandescent dimmers are often resistance dimmers.

    The exception are there to make sure that a $1 part doesn't render a $1000 appliance inoperable. Replacing the appliance would undoubtedly generate a ton more carbon than using an incandescent and the rule doesn't say that LED bulbs are prohibited just that incandescent bulbs for those uses are not yet banned.

    I'll also point out that LEDs are made of plastic and essentially become ewaste at the end of their life so there is a trade off to consider too.

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  • [–] 1 point 3 years ago* (last edited 3 years ago) (1 child)

    LED refrigerator bulbs are already a thing; bought one recently by accident, when looking for a very low power/low brightness for a bed side table.

    Those, apparently, are no longer a concern.

    Screw in LED bulbs with built in brightness and color control, that you can command from a phone application or through a conventional remote control, are already common, thus rendering conventional dimmers obsolete.

    Why keep those? To my very limited knowledge, dimmers can require expensive and extensive installation.

    I have seen LED traffic lights with built in anti frost measures and the expenditure to have those replaced is not a good argument to keep that particular use of incandescent lamps around.

    LED low power requirements, paired with their long service life, enables traffic lights to be independent from the power grid, through the use of solar panels and batteries, keeping it working even when severe weather disrupts energy distribution. LEDs are also brighter and easier to see from afar.

    There may be very particular cases where incandescent bulbs still do not have an alternative but to say they are irreplaceable is a disservice.

    I'm not trying to be dismissive, I'm trying to be demanding.

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  • [–] 1 point 3 years ago

    I have a garage door opener and I guess it's just not shielded well enough because LED light bulbs interfere with the signal from my remote, just one example. I would much rather buy new incandescent bulbs every few years than replace the opener outright.

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  • [–] 2 points 3 years ago* (1 child)

    And heat is not ready a concern. You can touch most LED bulbs with your bare hands with no risk of severe burn.

    This very clearly indicates that you haven't seriously considered this issue at all, and are just supporting your political faction with no reflection on what the unintended consequences might be.

    A common application of incandescent bulbs is to produce heat, for a variety of use cases. The typical example is an improvised chicken incubator.

    Consider very carefully why there's an exception for traffic signals.

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  • [–] 1 point 3 years ago (1 child)

    This is exactly what I was getting at. There are so many considerations and they clearly put some thought into the exception list even though the reasons may not be readily apparent. The order is not a small step in the right direction it's a significant step in the right direction and the impact on actual electricity usage is going to be massive.

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  • [–] 0 points 3 years ago (1 child)

    the impact on actual electricity usage is going to be massive.

    Is it?

    How many people are still installing new incandescent bulbs in 2023?

    Is there an actual study showing the expected costs and benefits of this rule, or is it purely political posturing?

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  • [–] 1 point 3 years ago (1 child)

    The article had an estimate from the DoE. Idk, be mad about it if you want. LED bulbs aren't perfect but what is.

    "As the rules reinforce existing market changes, the Energy Department believes that U.S. consumers can save almost $3 billion annually on their utility bills. Similarly, it projects that the rules could cut carbon emissions by 222 million metric tons over the next 30 years."

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  • [–] 1 point 3 years ago

    I can't find such a study, and it seems extremely unlikely to me that any such study was performed recently. The original law was passed in 2007, and then the regulations were in political limbo for more than a decade.

    My base hypotheses here, subject to easy refutation by any real evidence, are that:

    • The DOE has looked at no study from after 2007 to justify their current policies.
    • This regulation is going into effect now simply because it was on the list of stuff Trump did that the Biden admin reversed.
    • The effect on consumer electricity costs and carbon emissions are negligible, since LED bulbs are a decade cheaper and better and almost everyone voluntarily buys them.
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